I was talking to my friend AL one night rather recently, and he started dividing people into little groups, something like 'rankings' of friends. Amongst others, he mentioned 'hi-bye friends', 'friends', 'good friends', and 'girlfriend (as in GIRLfriend as opposed to girl friends :D ). At the time it was late at night, or more like early in the morning, and sleepiness got the better of me, so I didn't ask him how he streamed his friends into those categories.
Lets try to utilize this method of grouping for a while:
Acquaintances are easy to single out, granted. But what about 'friends', 'good friends' and 'girlfriends/ boyfriends'? Alright, maybe the last one needs some sort of formal declaration to the community to qualify or something... but even then it's easy to confuse the last category with 'good friends'. Surely we all know of some pairs of friends who seem close enough to actually be an item, yet frustratingly at times also seem like they aren't. I always think that they themselves are not sure which category to put each other in and are stuck in limbo between groups, undefinable. Friends and good friends too- how do you group them? Is it based on the amount of time spent together... or maybe the quality, perhaps? Would a 'good friend' spend a day studying with you or 10 minutes talking to you? Would he be just a 'normal friend' if he did the other?
It's difficult to quantify because it isn't quantifiable. The idea of groups is probably less accurate compared to the idea of a scale, and even that is imprecise. For now, I say that some things are not meant for us to define- what's wrong with fuzzy boarders instead of clear-cut boundaries? Throw the whole 'grouping', 'ranking', or 'scaling' thing out the window and just spend time with the people you like. Especially with the undefinable ones- just to keep the rest of the world guessing. And each other, of course.
Perhaps some people will think that I'll change my mind when I meet that 'special someone'. I don't think so. I have my own ideas on that little theory too, which is good for another posting in the future.
I'm feeling sooooooo evil right now :D
